Sonia Priya Sodha was born in June 1981. She describes herself as a "half-Hindu, half-Sikh Indian". She went to a private school, followed by
St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she took a
BA (Hons) in
PPE and an
MPhil in politics. She worked for the
Social Market Foundation and the Race Equality Unit at the
Home Office before joining the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) as a
research assistant, later becoming a
research fellow. She later moved to become Head of the Capabilities Programme at
Demos, where she led work in areas including education and public services, and became Head of Policy and Strategy at the Dartington Social Research Unit. Sodha was engaged as the chief
leader writer at
The Observer and deputy opinion editor at
The Guardian until the sale of the Observer to Tortoise Media and remains a columnist at The Guardian. She has made appearances on television and radio shows including the
Sky News newspaper review,
Today, and
Question Time, and has presented
BBC Radio 4 documentaries on topics including
multiculturalism and
deliberative democracy. Sodha served as a
trustee of
City Year UK, a charity that supports role models to help students from disadvantaged communities, and of
Trust for London, a charity addressing poverty and equality. Since 2022, Sodha appears regularly on ITVs
This Morning as contributor to news-related subjects. == Publications ==